Dear Sir,

Your recent article on rising food prices in Bermuda (June 11, 2021) was quite distressing to read. Many Bermudian families are finding it difficult to keep up with these alarming costs. Chicken has doubled in price since the beginning of the year. Beef is up 40 per cent; pork more than 50 per cent.

This may be a great opportunity to try a whole-food, plant-based alternative to these meats. A simple meal of ⅓ grain, ⅓ greens and ⅓ beans would be a relatively economical replacement to the skyrocketing price of meat.

Here’s an idea: keep some cooked brown rice around and you are always ready for a quick and satisfying meal. Put some of the rice in a bowl and add some canned chickpeas, and add some of those baby spinach leaves that come in bags. Remember, you can eat as much of this as you want and not gain weight. Flavour it as you like, with tamari for instance.

In addition, this meal would pack more nutrition, entail less clean-up — grease is much harder to clean — and do wonders for the planet.

You may think a plant-based meal could not make much of a difference to the planet, but I would quibble with that. You could make the same impact on the planet saving 660 gallons of water by not showering for 135 days in a row, or giving up just one hamburger for just one of those 135 days. (TheAtlantic.com, National Geographic, et al.)

Eating a whole-food, plant-based diet can be wonderful for your health as well. It can cure diabetes, lower cholesterol, prevent heart disease, lower blood pressure and make you lose excess weight — all at the same time. (See Forks Over Knives.) It will also lower or eliminate inflammation, and make those aches and pains go away.

With the growing cost of meat, what do you have to lose? You can save money, improve your health and help our planet — all at the same time.

LANE MARTIN

Devonshire

This letter has been corrected to show it is from Lane Martin, not Martin Lane